Paris Maraton Training Week 4

Holiday weeks away from home definitely make marathon training more complicated but I knew in advance what I could fit in and what I couldn’t for this week of training. I had 7 days of workouts for the week, with 6 days of running. 

Week 4 of marathon training began in North Florida. I had 45-60 min of XT on the schedule but no access to anything to cross train on. My parents have a house in rural north Florida so there’s no gym nearby (within at least a 40 min drive). Originally I was going to move my Tuesday workout up a day but instead did a 3 mile recovery run because my calves were feeling tight. Since I had to do this run outside and I’m scared of all the loose dogs chasing me (my mom has been chased multiple times here and I’ve been chased once by a pack of dogs) I convinced my parents to ride their bikes while I ran. My mom did a real bike workout while my dad rode near me. He carried pepper spray and a gun (gun more for bears that had been spotted recently and he’s a retired police chief with proper training and licenses). I did my 3 miles and didn’t feel great at all, it was still in the mid 70s and super humid and I didn’t bring water so I paid for that. 

Tuesday morning had 6 miles with 6×30 sec at 90% effort with 2 min recovery in the middle miles on the calendar but we had a chartered fishing trip planned for the morning so I consider reeling in 8 large mouth bass my cross training from Monday (I know Jes will disagree with that). It was a fun morning and I always enjoy these fishing trips. We use this guide 2-3 times a year for the past 9-10 years so he’s become a good friend to our family and watches over the house when my parents aren’t up there. 

  
The keepers from our trip!

  
I even cooked some myself when I got back to ATL! 

Wednesday morning I did the 6 miles with 6×30 sec at 90% effort with my parents biking again. My calves were tight for the first two miles but once I got to the 30 sec hard intervals that went away. I actually felt decent for this run and am happy I got it done. After this my parents and I went out for a good bye breakfast because Matty and I headed home that morning. 

  
Matty didn’t want to leave his grandma or Gumbo.

On New Year’s Eve I had 6 miles with 4 strides on the calendar and I did this outside on my favorite trail. It had cooled down in Atlanta some so it was nice to have that weather for the run. I don’t remember much about this run so I guess it was uneventful. 

I like to run the Atlanta Track Club’s Resolution Run on New Year’s Day but decided against the hilly course that was a mile longer than the 3 on my schedule and just ran 3 miles in my neighborhood. This is hilly and for some reason I just never felt great during this run. And I think I somehow offended this girl doing a walk of shame (she had on club wear at 8 am) because I’m pretty sure she was yelling at me and there were some hand motions. I just kept running because she was a lot bigger than me! 

  
First run of 2016

By this time in the week I was so confused what day it was but Saturday rolled around and I had 15 miles on the schedule but my calves were tight when I woke up and I wanted to check out the REI garage sale so I just did my 3 mile recovery run scheduled for Sunday. I did this on the flat trail near my house but had to do a different section than normal because of flooding from the river had blocked one part of the trail. I could have climbed some rocks to get around but with my clumsiness that seemed like a bad idea. My calves felt great during this so I probably should have done the full 15 miles and I ended up not getting anything at the REI sale because it was complete chaos and I just can’t shop in that. 

Sunday became my long run day and I headed into the city to run the beltline and in Piedmont park. I never really map anything out, I just start on the beltline for the 2 miles out and 2 miles back and then head into the park. I really really really did not enjoy this run. It was one of those runs where I’m constantly wishing my GPS watch says I’ve run farther than I really have because I was so over it. I tried to break it up into 5 mile increments which helped a little bit. It was in the upper 30s and I thought going to be in the 40s so I did wear tights and a long sleeve top, but a lighter long sleeve thinking it would warm up. I also had on gloves and ear warmers. I never ended up feeling hot and needing to take anything off. I don’t think I’ve ever worn gloves for a long run for more than 3 miles so it was really strange that I just couldn’t warm up. I guess with all the warm weather I had been running in I wasn’t acclimated for the colder weather.  

I was so bored for most of this run and I didn’t have any new podcasts to listen to and I think that didn’t help me stay in the run mentally. It was a pretty day in the park and I watched a film crew setting up for some scenes while I did some laps around the active oval. I like to do a little running here during the long runs to get in some softer surface and easy to count miles. I finished up in the park around 11 miles and told myself I just had to do the out and back on the beltline and I could be done. 

Somehow I managed to get in all 15 miles. It wasn’t pretty and it was probably too slow (due to accidentally hitting the lap button 5 times in the middle of miles I have no idea what my average pace was). I made my return to yoga after a month off with a restorative class in the afternoon that was a nice way to end my week.

Another week is in the books and next week the big challenge will be figuring out timing with having the dog back to walk, running and getting to work at a reasonable time. 

If you would like to donate to my breast cancer research fundraiser please go here: http://donate.breastcancermarathon.com/2016-Marathon/AmyWalker